Not only that, but it will benchmark your performance to date and tell you how you can improve it, and give you suggestions for alternative solutions if you want greater flexibility in terms of access to your wealth.

In every case, any suggestions we make for the improvement of your bottom line will cost you nothing to implement.

So, if you check your portfolio’s health with our free review service, you may well get something in the form of better returns and lower costs for nothing...it’s free and obligation free.

Step 4: Define fitter financial goals

Just like when many of us head back to the gym after the indulgences of the festive season, and we set ourselves fitness goals for the year ahead, so it helps improve your financial position if you set yourself monetary goals.

Whether you want to increase your retirement fund, work towards affording to give up working so hard, or perhaps raise enough to buy a property, setting goals will enable you to structure a financial plan in order to achieve your ambitions.

If you don’t decide what you’re saving or investing for, you’re far less likely to succeed, and far more likely to go off track, get distracted, give up and waste opportunities.

Step 5: Little and often beats a binge

When it comes to investing – whether that’s into a pension or via an index fund for example – the power of dollar cost averaging combined with consistency will deliver you the best results possible.

Those who try and time the market and throw all their money in in one go may do well…but they are also the sort of investors who buy high and pull out as a market is falling, losing any returns they’ve already accrued.

These people are called average investors – i.e., this behaviour model is actually what most people follow.

Instead, for a financially fitter you in 2017 know that those investors who do well commit to putting in an amount of money each month, every month, month after month.

Dollar cost averaging is a neat name for this very simple investment technique where you buy a fixed dollar (or any currency) amount of a particular investment on a regular basis, regardless of the underlying share price.

Naturally, you buy more when prices are low, and less when prices are high, but over time your investment averages out, and so do your healthy returns.

If you commit to this approach and you choose a low cost index fund so you don’t even have to try and guess what to invest in, you avoid listening to market noise, scary financial news and speculation about the next big thing, your consistent approach will reap you the rewards you’re hoping for.

But…don’t just take my word for it, Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winning economist said of those who try and time, guess, play and beat the market:

“They’re just not going to do it. It’s just not going to happen.”

And fellow Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Samuelson said:

“The most efficient way to diversify a stock portfolio is with a low fee index fund.”

Struggling for motivation?

Just like it can help you get physically fitter if you have a personal trainer or a friend who will accompany you to the gym, it can help to have support when focusing on financial fitness.

We can also offer you a free portfolio health check, and as described above it will detail exactly where you may be able to cut costs, and how you can improve your returns. It’s fee and obligation free, and if you only do one thing in 2017 towards improving your financial fitness, make sure it’s this.

Finally, our fee-based Chartered financial planning service can help you get a complete understanding of your current financial position, work out your fiscal goals, and assist with developing and maintaining the investment strategies that will enable you to achieve your ambitions.

Just give me one good reason…

If you’re still not entirely convinced at the thought of making financial resolutions, the survey I cited at the start of this article found that of those who made financial resolutions, allwere more optimistic, had less debt and were more financially secure than those who did not make financial resolutions.

About Sam Instone

Sam Instone, Director at AES International, is passionate about positive change and ensuring international investors get better results.